No Car Alarms

Sunday, March 20, 2011

http://www.noiseoff.org/

The best site out there currently addressing issues of noise from car alarms (and many other sources) is http://www.noiseoff.org/. I still think this site can be useful, in that it invites more public participation (in fact, I hope mos tof the content here will come from public participation). But I do appreciate the work Noise Off has done, especially their sections headed “The Money Trail.” NIce work.

Who to call: 311 or 911?

One thing you may not know about reporting car alarms in New York City is that while you can report it by calling 311, if the alarm is currently sounding when you call, the 311 operator will ask you to call 911. It seems seriously wasteful to do this, but it’s standard procedure. So now I just call 911. I don’t know if those calls are tracked in any way, but that’s what you have to do. They don’t usually respond, but now that we have foot patrols in the neighborhood (Bushwick), I have seen a car with a sounding alarm get ticketed—once.

For cars that are repeat offenders, I make a 311 call as well. (For the worst repeat offenders, a letter goes to my city councilman, but that’s a subject for another post.)

Do other cities have this “call 911” rule? What’s the procedure for reporting car alarms in your jurisdiction?

Saturday, March 19, 2011

A central place for information on car alarms

Welcome to nocaralarms.com. What this blog is intended to be is a central place for information about car alarms, specifically about eliminating them. I’d especially like to see news about legislative efforts to eliminate them, but any good story about one less car alarm is welcome. And in the spirit of inclusiveness, if anybody has a story about a car alarm preventing the theft of a motor vehicle, I’d love to hear the details. (But I won’t hold my breath.)